Rafah border crossing briefly reopened

Sunday, October 23, 2005 |

The main border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt reopened today for 48 hours for humanitarian reasons. Palestinian officials expect 6,000 Gaza residents on the Egyptian side of the border to return home by Tuesday morning. The Gaza border was broken down shortly after Israel’s pullout from Gaza last month, and thousands of guns and bullets were smuggled in during a week of chaos. A week later, Palestinian and Egyptian security forces resealed the frontier. Israel, the Palestinians, Egypt and international mediators are currently negotiating permanent border arrangements along the volatile frontier.

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